“We were close. Very close, if you know what I mean,” David said, standing next to a reporter who held a microphone in his face. “We talked a lot. I knew her very well.”
The reporter brought the microphone back to her mouth. “Did Poppy discuss Mr. Abernathy with you?”
Holden got a title and last name, while she was just Poppy? It was infuriating.
“She’s a woman who knows what she’s got,” David said when the microphone was turned back to him. “As smart as she is beautiful. Poppy knows how to work a man, to manipulate a situation.”
Her mouth opened in shock.
“Do you believe this is all a game on her part?” the reporter asked. “Is she playing all of us?”
“Don’t get me wrong, Poppy’s an amazing woman,” David said. “She can tie a guy up in knots, if you know what I mean…”
The overtly suggestive leer on his face widened Poppy’s eyes. “Did he just suggest we—”
“Shh!” Preston said so they could hear the rest of David’s words.
“But I do think we’d be fools to take everything in this situation at face value. Something is going on. Poppy assesses every step before she takes it.” That was so ludicrous that it almost warranted a snort of laughter. “Don’t underestimate her. You think Holden Abernathy is shrewd? Poppy is far more cunning, I don’t doubt it for a second.”
The reporter turned back to the camera. Preston hit pause.
“I’m going to kill him,” Poppy said, trying to push Turner’s legs away to free her own. “I swear to God, I am going to—”
“Hey,” Turner said, swaying closer to kiss her shoulder. “We’ll take him down, don’t worry.” His focus landed on his friend. “How do we take him down?”
“Defamation is difficult to prove,” Preston said. “But we can ruin him with legal fees.” On a careful intake of breath, his eyes bounced from Turner’s to hers a couple of times. “Before we think about that, I do have to ask—”
“No,” Turner barked. “She never went anywhere near the asshole.”
“Poppy?”
“Of course I didn’t,” she said, then grabbed for Turner. “Charley. You have to call her.”
“Yeah,” he said, sitting up to retrieve his phone from the pillow.
“Charley was into him,” Poppy said by way of explanation to Preston. “She wanted to date him. They went out a few times, more as friends than anything else. I don’t know what’s changed in the last couple of weeks.”
Preston lunged over her to grab for Turner’s phone before he could dial. “What the hell—”
“Let me talk to her first.”
“What?” Turner snapped, scowling at the lawyer. “Why do you—”
“Because if she was upset with Poppy then God only knows what Charley said to this guy. If you get in her face, she’ll never be honest.”
“Oh God,” Poppy said, sinking onto her back, her hand sliding onto her forehead.
Of course Charley would be mad at her. She thought their friendship was real before Poppy just vanished from her life. Charley would’ve learned through the press, or maybe her brother if he’d had time, that Poppy wasn’t exactly who the Maddox sisters believed her to be.
If Turner had told Charley the truth, before or after the stories hit the media, Charley would’ve found out that not only had Poppy misled her, but her own brother had too.
“Don’t worry about it,” Turner said, stroking her stomach. “Whatever it is, we’ll get through it.”
“Instead of solving problems, all we seem to be doing is gaining new ones,” Poppy said, pushing both men out of the way to jump up off the bed. “This is all my fault.”
“This is Abernathy’s fault,” Turner said, standing up with her. “I don’t want you to lose sight of that for a second.”
Fraught, Poppy slid the heel of her hand up her forehead, her fingers curling into her hair. “Oh God.”
“Hey,” Turner said, snagging her free hand to angle her his way. “Stop giving him power.” She blinked at him, not expecting to see his smile. “All that matters is the people we care about. We don’t care about him, do we?” Poppy shook her head. “You told me that for something to have the power to upset us, it has to mean something to us.”
“Charley means something to me,” she said. “I don’t care what David says to the press, so long as you know he’s—”
“Full of shit? Trust me, baby, I do.”
“Then that doesn’t matter, let him enjoy his five seconds of fame. But Charley… I already hurt her once and she likes this